In 2002, Galaxy was run as a Coached Event, and I am happy
to say that experienced players showed a lot of patience teaching
many new people the game. It can sometimes be frustrating to
guide these beginners, but I firmly believe that part of the
role of WBC is to cultivate new blood, and I think a Coached
Event is a good way to do it.

Although
fewer people played in the tournament this year, more games were
played in the first round (29 versus 26). One reason for this
statistic is that there were only four five-player games in the
first round this year. (Last year, there were about equal numbers
of four- and five-player games.) Because only 20 people (including
three semi-finalists) showed up for the semi-finals, we played
four five-player games and had a four-player final. (I would
have advanced as many as five more alternates if they had shown
up. Hint, hint!) I may need to change the time for the second
round...did everyone really like 9 a.m. on Saturday better?

As usual, there were times during the tournament when players
found themselves in particularly interesting circumstances. For
example, once in Heat 1, Steve Cameron was left with a hand of
only technology cards as the result of Raiders being played on
the world he governed. In another Heat 1 game, Joseph Burch managed
to draw five "10s", but they were all for worlds where
he had no influence. That same game, Dan Dolan, Sr., had five
"0s" in his hand. Low and behold, Dan won the game
and Joseph came in last.

In Heat 2, Joel Tamburo only drew one card the entire game
that was not a "0", "10", or technology card.
(He didn't manage to win the game.) In another Heat 2 game, bases
managed to defend themselves in more than 2/3 of the approximately
20 attacks made on them. In one particular exchange, Dan Eshelman
rolled boxcars twice. In Heat 4, Luke Koleszar was Governor of
the Ecup Contract, even though Luke's influence on that world
had been knocked down to "0". (He made up for it with
other influence and won the game.)

One of the closest games was a five-player semi-final in which
the winner (Dave Buchholz-a finalist from last year) scored ten
points and each of the other players scored eight. By the end
of the game, Dave had acquired a hand size of 15. He accomplished
this by playing the Advanced Processing Technology Card and several
Raiders. In that game, Steve Shambeda (a finalist from last year),
moved up from last place to second by eliminating the Divergence
on the last round and forcing the four-way tie for second (which
he won on the tie breaker).

As usual, the final was intense-though this year it was shorter
because it consisted of only one game. Two of the four players
(Dave Buccholz and Jon Shambeda) were finalists in 2001. The
first world to surrender was Divergence. In the second round,
Martin Sample eliminated the Erthizonians (under the influence
of Dave and Jon). In the third round, Jon's influence on the
Kha'Farjimmn was driven down to "0" through the handiwork
of Andy Lewis. Since Andy and Dave both had significant influence
showing on the Ecup Contract, Cylor, and Imperials, Martin and
Jon felt compelled to work together and eliminate the Imperials.

During the last round, Martin built his hand size up to 13
and played sensors to determine where some of the secret bases
were. Luck was not with him, and he gleaned no information. When
Jon made a move to attack the Kha'Farjimmn Drone (1)-where he
had "0" influence showing-everyone suspected that his
secret base was there. Andy was determined to take out the Kha'Farjimmn,
but he didn't get much assistance from Dave, who stayed out of
the fray by discarding. Jon played a Drone (1) on the Cylor,
where he had 5 influence points showing, but Andy brought in
a Cruiser (8), which he used to try to take out the Felowi Cruiser
(8). Both attack and counter-attack failed. At this point, Dave
revealed his secret base on the Kha'Farjimmn-which explains the
lack of cooperation on his part to take out the yellow menace
- and played the garrison ship.

This move ended the game by causing the Ecup Contract to surrender.
It was Martin's secret base. Unfortunately for Dave (and the
rest of the players), Jon's secret base was, in fact, on the
Kha'Farjimmn, and Jon took victory, with ten influence. Andy's
secret base was on Felowi, which meant that he and Dave tied
for second with seven. Dave had the better remaining hand, so
he won the tiebreaker. Martin was fourth with five points. His
secret base was the only one lost. The score in the final game
(29) was less than the median for four-player games in the first
round (32), despite the fact that only one secret base was eliminated
in the game. (This seems to indicate that players worked together
to beat on the leader.)

Now for statistics: In 25 first-round games that provided
World Surrender information, the races most likely to surrender
(in 75 percent of games) were the Ecup Contract and the Imperials,
followed closely by the Myrmidons. Last year, the Myrmidons took
the dubious honor of most likely to be absorbed. The Cylor were
the safest bet during 2002, surrendering in less than half of
the games. (Though the Cylor surrendered in every semi-final
game, it did survive in the final.) Interestingly, the most popular
choices for secret bases were the Ecup Contract and the Cylor.
(Both were selected 15 times.) Slightly less popular (selected
13 times) was the choice to establish no secret base at all.
In one game, none of the four players established a secret base.
That game tied for the lowest winning score, but was not the
lowest-scoring game. In the lowest-scoring game, all secret bases
were eliminated.

This year, victory had to be determined by tiebreaker in only
two first-round games - though one involved three players. Ties
for lower finishes did have an effect on alternate seeding. The
semi-final games had interesting scores, with ties for second
through fourth in one of the four games and second through fifth
in another-mentioned above. (Luckily, the ties did not affect
who advanced to the final.) Generally, the rule for deciding
ties was remembered this year. Note that when examining the remaining
cards in a hand to break a tie, Ally cards count double (the
same way cards for remaining worlds count double).

The average total game score
in 2002 was slightly lower than last year for four- and five-player
games (31.8 and 36, respectively), but the average winning score
remained at 12. (The standard deviation for the total game score
was 8.6 for four-player games and 1.8 for five-player games.
For average winning score, the standard deviation was 3.1 for
four-player games and 0.8 for five-player games.) For all games,
the lowest total game score was 18 and the highest was 48; the
lowest winning score was 7 and the highest was 16.

A special thanks to Stuart Tucker for acting as assistant
GM and to the other volunteers who took on that job during the
tournament. I particularly appreciate anyone who helped teach
during the heats. I also appreciate Steve Shambeda's valuable
feedback about rules and handouts. Thank you to everyone who
took time to write down anecdotes about their games and give
the GM feedback.

As a final note, there is a rule clarification for next year:
Anyone who wants to reveal a secret base on a world that has
already surrendered will need to use the turn's card play to
discard the useless garrison ship. Thus, revealing a secret base
on a surrendered world uses both Mandatory Action A2 and Optional
Action B.